Anchorage

Baie de Sanary

4.6FranceVar

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Shelter: N, NE, NW
Seabed: rock
Anchoring: Allowed

Rocky anchorage in the bay off Sanary-sur-Mer, Var coast, sheltered from northerly winds and open to the south.

Beach

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Approach from the south-west between the Île du Grand Rouveau and the Île de Bendor. Anchor off the breakwater outside the buoyed harbour entrance channel in 5 to 6 metres. The bottom is rock and Posidonia with patches of sand and gravel; clear spots are hard to find but holding is fair once dug in. Protected from N, NE and NW, but poorly sheltered from the west, where a cross swell makes it choppy, so tuck in closer to the breakwater. The inner harbour lies 0.2 NM north-east.

Practical

No services on the anchorage. Port de Sanary-sur-Mer at 0.2 NM offers water, fuel, and all shore facilities. Port Méditerranée 0.9 NM to the south-east is a secondary option.

Ashore

Land by dinghy at the sandy beach 0.3 NM to the east, as access into the marina by tender is awkward. Daily morning market on the quay in Sanary, one of the largest on the Var coast. Tour Romane on the seafront, a twelfth-century watchtower now housing a diving museum. Coastal path from the port toward the Pointe de la Cride, about 2 km.

History

Sanary-sur-Mer was the base of Commandant Cousteau, Philippe Tailliez and Frédéric Dumas, who developed the Aqua-Lung diving equipment here in the 1940s. The town also hosted German-speaking exiled writers, including Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht, between 1933 and 1940.